Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A surgical team may comprise a number of medical professionals, each playing an assigned role and each managing various aspects of surgical data captured during, or even before, a surgical procedure. This surgical data may include surgical images and video, surgical instrument parameters, patient health parameters (e.g., vital signs), lab results, etc. A variety of technologies exists to extract this data from the surgical setting and save it in a medical records database, or elsewhere for later analysis. However, during a surgical procedure, these various aspects of surgical data often remain under the control of the surgical team member that captured or generated the data and may not be readily and immediately available to others on the team. For example, in a surgical robotics scenario, such as a laparoscopic surgery, only the surgeon may have an optical visual interface to the surgical field. Further, some members of the surgical team, such as a patient's general practitioner or a radiologist, may not be located within the operating room during a surgical procedure, but may benefit from being aware of the status of the surgery and/or being in communication with those within the operating room.
Open communication and data sharing among surgical team members can play an important role in reducing medical errors in the operating room. In some cases, however, team communication can be impeded by user interface technologies. For example, surgical robotics consoles tend to be immersive for the surgeon, which can encumber team communication and performance among the operating room team. At the same time, it can be important for a surgical team member to remain visually focused on the surgical site.